Thursday 2 February 2012 07.03 EST
First published on Thursday 2 February 2012 07.03 EST

Ever since Pat Butcher gave up the ghost and had to be carted away at Christmas, there's been a gaping hole at the heart of EastEnders. The only things that link the show's present with its past are Dot Cotton (who only gets about one line every two or three weeks) and Ian Flipping Beale. The current stars of EastEnders are the billion interchangeable Moon brothers and Lucy Beale's vast thatch of a fringe.

But hope is on the horizon. It has been revealed that Letitia Dean has signed up to bring Sharon Watts back to EastEnders. This is potentially brilliant news. Even in the disturbingly bleak context of Albert Square – a context which means that Ben Mitchell is about a nanosecond away from recreating the last five minutes of Kill List outside The Arches – Sharon Watts knows misery like no other.

Since her first appearance in 1985, Sharon has stumbled from one catastrophe to the next. She was adopted by Dirty Den and Angie. Then Dirty Den died. Then she had it away with both Mitchell brothers. Then Angie died. Then she got engaged to a man with a brain tumour. Then the man with the brain tumour blew up. Then her step-sister couldn't work out whether she was supposed to have a British or an American accent. Then she fell in love with her brother. Then Dirty Den came back to life. Then Dirty Den died again. Then her brother was murdered.

Just one or two of these would be enough to finish off a normal human, but not Sharon. Sharon just bounces back from these disasters the only way she knows how – with a brand new, yet never exactly flattering, haircut and an incomprehensibly breathy pout that leaves you fearing for her diminished lung capacity. She is little short of a superwoman.

Why she'd return, though, is anyone's guess. It's obvious why Dean would want another stint on EastEnders – aside from pantomimes and appearances on reality shows, it would appear to be her only job – but Sharon? She lives in America now. America is warm and friendly. Why Sharon would return to Walford, where nobody smiles and every corner is splattered with tragedy, is anybody's guess. There's a good chance that she'll return with a young son in tow, but all that promises is another fortnight of mangled mid-Atlantic stage-school accent confusion.

But perhaps we shouldn't get bogged down too much in motivation here. This is EastEnders, where characters can change overnight to fit storylines. All that matters is that Letitia Dean is returning. Her immediate future is laid out ahead of her – from her first appearance, inevitably gasping "Ello Fiw" at Phil Mitchell right at the end of an episode, to her harrowingly tear-drenched departure back to the States three months later. It promises to be vintage EastEnders. I can't wait.